Everywhere you go there is the South. The woman at the motel desk this morning in Effingham grew up in New Orleans. Her late husband was from Alabama. Her great granddad was governor of the state of Louisiana, Gov. Nicholls. Julia Street, where you find many of New Orleans' art galleries, was named after her grandmother. (There is a Gov. Nicholls Street -- and wharf -- at the downriver end of the French Quarter.)

Trying to change people's attitudes about snakes is about as easy as convincing an Ole Miss fan to cheer for State -- nearly impossible. Seeing a man at the Riverwalk "subdue" a harmless (non-venomous) 5' rat snake with a large branch a few weeks back drove this point home.

ack sat quietly at the porch rail overlooking the bird feeders. I imagined him recalling the day he would crouch under the fading irises and wait to spring on a cardinal, an indigo bunting, a Prothonotary warbler, perhaps a hummingbird.

Mississippi's two key K-12 education leaders, Board of Education Chairman Wayne Gann and State Superintendent Carey Wright, rejected quickly and firmly on Friday Gov. Phil Bryant's claims that the Common Core school standards is a "failed program" run by the federal government to the harm of local schools and the state.

When Melchie Koonce was growing up in Stuttgart, Arkansas, he worked summers with his brother-in-law opening and closing floodgates in rice patties. The mosquitoes were so thick the boys wore nets over their heads while they worked. To combat boredom one of them came up with the idea of seeing who could catch the most snakes. They would grab the snakes and throw them into croaker sacks.

This woman in ill-fitting, soiled clothes sat beside a shuttered gas station in front of Leigh Mall. I would pass by in the middle of the day and see her. This went on for weeks. We all have places to go.

"A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody."
--Thomas Paine
In case you missed it ...
This past week our city council did something utterly stupid and repressive. It placed onerous restrictions on its public-input policy. Before Tuesday evening any citizen who wished to address the council on any topic simply had to show up and put his name on the list to speak.

The walls of Toni's bedroom were lined with books from the floor to the ceiling. At the foot of the bed was a small sitting area with a thrifted brocade couch and a small coffee table, where Toni drank tea in real china tea cups, also thrifted.

A friend, who by day is a buttoned-down lawyer, has for years driven a pickup truck. He's not the only person in that line of work to do so. Last time I checked, our D.A. drove a Toyota Tacoma. I suspect the truck for these guys is an antidote for long hours reading tedious legal briefs or time spent in the bowels of the courthouse doing title searches.